Rick Barnes of Schweitzer Construction checks damage at the constuction site. Vandals operated the excavator and dozer behind Barnes and then took a loader.

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A search continues for the person who conducted some late-night excavation in Battle Creek and then crashed a 33,000-pound front-end loader downtown.

Battle Creek police found the $180,000 Caterpillar 938H loader about 3:47 a.m. Thursday straddling a wall at Summit Pointe along United Way. Officers then found it was just one of three pieces of heavy equipment which had been operated overnight at the former Kellogg Cereal City USA museum on East Michigan Avenue. The site is to become the Battle Creek Area Math & Science Center in the fall of 2013.